Chapter 6 - THE AFFAIR THAT WAS REALLY A REVENGE PLAN
Sophie requested immunity before she would talk.
She did not get full immunity.
She got a cooperation agreement.
Naomi called it less satisfying than revenge but more useful.
Sophie sat across from me in a conference room.
No champagne blouse.
No perfect makeup.
She looked exhausted.
“You hate me.”
“Yes.”
Fairness mattered.
She nodded.
“I hated you too.”
That surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because you had the life I thought Grant stole from my father.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I know that now.”
Eight years earlier, Sophie’s father was accused of taking pension money.
Grant was a junior analyst at the consulting firm advising Northlake.
He discovered irregularities.
His report helped prosecutors.
What Grant did not know—or claimed not to know—was that the evidence had been manipulated by Michael’s father.
Robert Larkin took the fall.
Sophie spent years proving it.
Then she found Grant.
“And you seduced him?”
“At first, I wanted access.”
“To his files?”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
She looked away.
“Then he became unhappy.”
I laughed.
“That sounds like him.”
“He complained about your marriage.”
“Did he mention I gave up my career for him?”
“No.”
“Did he mention my ten percent?”
Her face changed.
“What?”
Sophie claimed she did not know the transfer was unauthorized.
She remembered processing documents through a senior partner at the accounting firm, but Grant told her I had agreed.
“Then why did you sign as witness?”
“I was told you signed remotely.”
Naomi looked skeptical.
So did I.
Sophie swallowed.
“I was twenty-eight and ambitious. I signed things I should have questioned.”
“Then you took $250,000.”
“No.”
We showed her the payment.
Her face went white.
“I never received that.”
Bank records disagreed.
Then Elliot found the problem.
The account was opened using Sophie’s name.
But the address belonged to Grant.
My stomach dropped.
Grant had routed money through an account pretending to be hers.
“Who controlled it?” Naomi asked.
The bank’s login history showed one device.
Grant’s old laptop.
The truth became uglier.
Grant had created the false payment to make the ownership transfer look like outside restructuring work.
He sent half to his mother.
The other half returned quietly to Harbor Bridge.
Sophie had been used as cover.
Again.
She looked physically ill.
“So he lied to both of us.”
“Yes,” I said.
For once, we agreed.
Then Sophie told us why she entered my condo.
She believed Grant kept the original Northlake audit files on one of my drives.
“Why your old studio?”
“Because he told me he hid everything there after you stopped designing.”
I laughed bitterly.
Of course he used the room he had slowly taken away from me.
Sophie lowered her eyes.
“The affair was real.”
I said nothing.
“But the first reason I got close to him was the files.”
“Does that make you feel better?”
“No.”
Good.
Then she handed Naomi a flash drive.
“I copied Grant’s private emails.”
Inside were messages between Grant and a person using the initials D.W.
They discussed Northlake.
My shares.
Michael.
The financing round.
And me.
One message from Grant read:
Claire cannot know the company only exists because of her father’s money.
I stared.
My father?
Then another:
If she learns what Bennett Design actually paid for, she can take Harbor Bridge away from me.
May you like
My father had financed the company.
And nobody had ever told me.
